According to a study released last week, a majority of small-business owners in Pennsylvania are supportive of LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination policies. A June 4 report from Small Business Majority found that 68 percent of small-business owners believe there should be both a state and federal law prohibiting workplace discrimination against LGBT people. And business owners were largely unaware of the current lack of LGBT workplace protections — 84 percent did not know that it’s legal under federal law to fire or refuse to hire someone based on sexual orientation or gender identity, and 78 percent were unaware that the state also lacked an LGBT-inclusive workplace nondiscrimination law. The results are based on a poll conducted in April by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research. LGBT advocates are hoping the study will create a push for House and Senate bills 300, which would protect LGBT Pennsylvanians from discrimination in public accommodations, employment and housing. “The interesting thing about this study is that it is the same news we’ve been getting but in a different way,” said Equality Pennsylvania executive director Ted Martin. “It shows how much small businesses are out in front of legislators, just like the public is. There is a lot of support.” Other findings include that 62 percent of respondents said it should not be legal to fire or refuse to hire an LGBT person based on an employer’s religious beliefs, and 71 percent agreed that a business should not be able to legally refuse services to customers based on their religion. There was also majority support for the federal Family and Medical Leave Act to be amended to allow employees to care for a same-sex partner; for Social Security benefits to be extended to same-sex partners; and for married same-sex couples to receive the same federal family benefits as heterosexual couples. More than 60 percent of respondents said the Defense of Marriage Act “hurts businesses” and that the law’s impact on immigration is also detrimental to business. About one-third of businesses surveyed instituted their own LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination policies, and 80 percent of such businesses said they did so that all employees were treated “fairly and equally.” More than 90 percent of business with such policies said the measures cost “nothing or next to nothing” to implement. Martin said the study was a good educational tool. “It showed how little people know. A lot of owners didn’t know that it was still legal to fire someone. It helps to educate,” he said, noting that the results run contrary to the arguments of opponents. “Some legislators say that this law would sink small businesses because they will be hit with lawsuits and now we see that small businesses don’t see it that way.” Martin encouraged small businesses to get further involved with the cause. “I think they really need to put policies in place, but I also think they need to talk about it — tell their legislators that this law would not hurt their business but, in fact, would make their business appeal to the public.”
